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BAC has their first and last full corps camp this coming weekend, and as of then, we will be only four weeks away from Spring Training in Castleton, Vermont. This year, they will only be up there 17 days, with the rest of pre-season on locations closer to the Boston area. Along with several local performances, many of us are thrilled to have the corps closer to the Hub. Can't wait for the start of the season!!!!

I was just trying to get the whining and crying started early. Lol. But now that I think of it, I screwed up and went out of order. First thing that is supposed to happen is to overreact to BDs Community Performance in Wyoming, when the show is literally bare bones and nothing of substance has been added yet. THEN I am supposed to cry West Coast Inflation after the first show. And I think the third thing is then make threads about performers sitting out like five years if they change corps to keep them from going to BD. Sigh, maybe I will get it right next year.

West Coast Inflation!

How many times do people have to explain this? These people aren’t all doing massive stints on the road. Most of the great instructors have other commitments in the summer time. The larger staffs allow coverage all summer by tagging in and out. This isn’t hard, y’all.

Yeah, saying that DCI knew the end was coming and "gave" Cadets the 5th place finish was conspiracy theory, clueless, and just plain stupid. The Cadets came in 5th because they were better than everyone beneath them, including this woman's beloved Regiment. They deserved their placement, and I say this as a Boston supporter.

Ok, I think we have BD’s 2024 show figured out. Like 1998 (Romeo & Juliet / WSS) it is a mash-up. Bonnie and Clyde and Sid and Nancy. Uses music from the musical Bonnie & Clyde (which is a real thing) & the Sex Pistols. Note that the four names are alluding to a four-peat. Glad we figured this out. Good work everyone.

Which is a link to Youtube That ballad.

I will be right next to you cheering for BAC as well. If another corps is better than BD, I have zero issues showing them love and support. 2018, I cheered SCV all the way across the finish line. Babylon has one of my favorite closers ever. 2016, You best believe I was all aboard the Bloo hype train. And that was a sweet train to be on. 2013, Crown was here in SoCal housing at my kids Alma Mater Vista Murrieta High School. BD was also housing a few miles away from my house as well. Guess what? I went to more Crown rehearsals than BD. I can support my favorite corps (BD), be a Mandarins Dad and fangirl their historic rise..................but also show love to other corps without tearing them down, spreading lies and false narratives because I don't like some scores and placements.

My favorite is: they want to destroy the corps / they want the corps to fold. One need look no further than the screed of a statement from CAE as they exited the stage. A case study in victim blaming.

Yes. absurdity.. I don't what gets into us social media Drum Corps fans. Its seems like every preseason starting almost without fail on April 1st we're .. Constantly Risking Absurdity .😉

Strict 2024 production discussion only. Staff, admin and all other discussions should have their own threads. (I apologize to the community for not understanding/following that in the past and am opening this thread in that vein. I will follow it here to a T.) That said: camp and show reveal slated for this weekend IIRC. Felicidades to the members! The drum corps world is very happy to have you back and I wish you a safe and happy summer!

I heard the opener back in January but I didn’t recognize the music and couldn’t ascertain a theme from just listening to it. Only thing I can say for certain is it sounded dark and a little ominous. Mello part was tasty from what I remember. Of course this could have changed since then so I’m just waiting until I can see them in person. Can’t wait to hear what Mackey cooked up for them

A perfect lead-in to what I felt was a good contribution to this fabulous thread:

IDK if BD will four-peat. But I am confidently predicting that if there is a four-peat in 2024, it will be Blue Devils.

Nah. If Boston did that they'd be looking through classic literature to figure out which book had been adapted. If Bloo did it, they'd say, "Finally, the agriculture show theme has arrived! Composting for fertilizer!" Now do it for other corps

Can't wait to hear how this weekends camp goes! Safe travels to all. Crazy to think move ins are less than a month away.

Blue Devils Instagram stories playing this beautiful piece over their promo camp video for the weekend starting tomorrow. INTERESTING! 👀

With due respect, The site already has a community guidelines section... that pretty much covers the "rules" of the site... I should know as I have been on the DCP admin team since the site was less than three months old. I was kinda party in actually WRITING said guidelines. If you want a thread discussing 2024, Vanguard, then I am pretty certain that the 2024 staff is relevant to the topic. I feel comfortable speaking for the admin team on this that we are not particularly interested in enforcing arbitrary rules set on individual threads that sit outside the community guidelines.... and besides, there is already a 2024 Vanguard thread. Closing this thread as a duplicate.

Aggressive definitely from what I recall. Battery was going for it. Sounded like a minor key so that definitely made it sound darker. Wish I could have figured out a theme but it’s difficult hearing only one movement in audition camps. Maybe we will get more intel after this weekend if someone goes up to watch on Sunday

One month away from move-ins! Getting more and more excited as the season grows nearer!

Sid & Nancy?

I doubt it. Drum Corps isn't special and immune from the realities of the world. Sexual violence is sickeningly common in American life in general: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html "Sexual violence is common. Over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes." This is only based on what is reported, let alone the unknown unreported (it's vast). But let's put that aside and go with the data for now. So to math out some of this data (i'm open to any corrections): Just shy of 42% of the USA population has experienced sexual violence in their lifetime based on that stat. A little over 14% have experienced rape. 80% of reported rapes happen before the age of 25. Choose any random 5 drum corps members. 2 of them already have, or are likely to, suffer sexual violence in their lifetimes. Now choose 7. One of them is likely to suffer rape in their lifetime. Choose any corps. Current capacity of 150 = 63 will suffer sexual violence in their lifetime. 21 of them will potentially suffer rape their lifetime. 17 of those people will experience it before the age of 25 according to the cdc page. I don't know the actual membership numbers, but let's say 15 of the corps are at max capacity. That's 945 people marching this summer that will or already have in their lives suffered sexual assault. 315 of them will or already have in their lives suffered rape. 255 of them will experience it before the age of 25. Extrapolate it back over the multiple decades many of these corps have existed, I'd be shocked if there is any corps where this has never happened. And even if a modern corps does everything absolutely right to protect their members, it will still happen. The sickness is in society at large. We'll never change what is commonplace by pretending it is exception.

You should have been in a Senior corps. 👍 Had one snare drummer light a cig just before he was told time to do warm ups. Muttered “I ain’t wasting this” and smoked it while warming up with rest of the line. When done he just turned his head and spit it out about 5 feet. Never missed a beat the whole time.

Oh I wasn't referring to you brother. We know who they are lol. They'll be here in about a month or so, spew their nonsense, then if BD wins in August, they'll say they are done with DCI and never supporting the activity ever again..............only to show back up next June regurgitating the same crap from previous years lol.

If it was any other corps, I would think somebody screwed up. However, this is the Blue Devils, so it is probably them being all crafty and subtle. Like I have been saying for decades, if they were to go out in their opening set and take a poop on the 50, DCI judges would say they were making a statement on the futility of one man's struggle in a byzantine society. If Boston or Bloo did that, they'd say "get a shovel!" LOL! But seriously, good luck in 2024 BD!

I wish there was an intelligent, mature, informed podcast that discussed the art form and the business of drum corps, one where the folks who actually know what's what would be willing to go on and discuss the activity and provide insight and clarity to listeners. Something very different from DCAF, in other words.

1934foundation.org A few of us have been working on this on and off for over 2 years. The past few months we have been holding Zoom calls with other alumni and have a group of over 130 involved. Take a look at the website.... and help us give scholarships to deserving drum corps performers.

The CEO said in the last open board meeting that they'd announce with rep at this weekend's camp.

If Agape is their ballad this year, there's a good chance I'll find myself in tears as well. 🥹

My dad's set was a marine pearl slingerland kit from the 1950s. He had it down in the garage when i was a kid for awhile, it spent a lot of time in the attic. We got it down and set it up again for him after retirement but then they wanted to use that for a spare bedroom again and it went back to the attic. When it came time for him to sell the house and move after mom died. He was ready sell it and his older brother had a neighbor who was a drummer and learned he also collected kits. The guy was ecstatic to see dad's drums...complete with most of the calfskin heads intact. I think only the snare had been replaced by a synthetic head. The thing was in pretty good shape and the guy lovingly restored it then had dad over to see it and play on it one last time.

I don’t know, Chief! While i would LOVE some La Fiesta, Legend would have me throwing MYSELF!

Yes we don't want to jinx it at all.. But i am truly looking forward for that season of pure brawl battle between BD and BAC with Boston coming out on top.

Yeah.. I am quietly cheering for BAC to beat my fave and take that trophy Lol... I meant that. If i see that they have the show to win it all, i will be cheering loudly, but until then GO BD!

BD losses in 08/11/13/16/18, the other corps was better, and earned their titles. Plain and simple. No excuses.

I hope BD does something out of the box so people can scratch their heads 😁

pretty easy to pick out 3 or 50 conventions that every other top corps uses every year. i could do it for boston and bloo, but i'm an adult. i'd love to see the top 3 from last year all change things up. the formulas have gotten alittle stale to me even though i've liked the products.

I think the biggest question coming into 2024 is can BAC/Bloo/Crown separate from the other two and challenge BD. Last year, we saw the auto racing effect. Second place moves into position to challenge for first, but then here comes the third and fourth place car, so second now has to defend his spot, which allows first place to pull away. Those three corps (All freaking phenomenal btw) canceled each other out. We saw pretty much the same thing as well in 2022. Can one of them break away from the pack? If not, then yes, another "DJ Slap" courtesy of BD is upon us.

the Jojo's meledy was good but good lord, Tank! the year before was supreme. I still think a Seatbelts + Stan Kenton show would be amazing for this BD team to work with while they're on this idiom.

After they killed it with Jojo last year, sign me up for more Japanese anime!!

Yep and that's part of the problem. Everything costs money and having 15 guard instructors is just unnecessary. Spend that money on getting a better product.

April is a time for absurdity in this activity.

Oh! Let me play! 1. BD is finishing fourth this year! That show is so weak! 2. Judges are ALREADY slotting BD in first because of last year's performance. 3. We should kick BD out of DCI, they're already basically professionals.

I've gotten to work with two groups. Both times I was only available for a couple of weeks, as were the majority of the staff. I showed up, worked with them when I could, then went home. Same with everybody else. We generally had 5-6 guard instructors in front of the students on any given day. That breaks down to a dance person, 1-2 weapon people, 1-2 flag people, and someone in the tower. About the same as what it was when I marched and had the same five people on the road with us all summer long, minus the burnout.

Aren’t there other forums where you can twist yourself into a pretzel to make a lame “ oooooohhh scary George Soros” post? DCP ain’t it

I'm saying this only half tongue in cheek, but most of those types of folks are too busy actually running drum corps... Mike

Somethings really are, unfortunately, as simple as "boy grows up watching dad abuse mom, grows up and abuses his partner." Drum corps is no different. It takes work to find a different path than the one you were brought up in. Any time I have been involved in marching education I have been keenly aware and focused on not letting how I was originally taught be how I put things forward. Those old behavior pathways are always there, worn into the brain, and available to travel if I am not cautious and mindful.

I'll preface this by saying I agree with the spirit of what this person posted in general. But, as somebody who was there, they do not know what they speak of with the Cadets regarding Hop. Of course the abuse was there before him, because lets face facts: the abuse was, and is, everywhere in the activity. No corps is immune from it. The cycle didn't start with Hop, but he codified it there. He was dug in like a tick. His grip, an ironclad stranglehold. He was in charge for 34 years, more than one third of the corps' existence. He enabled the abuse there for those years and directly took part in it. Once he took over anybody who marched there can tell you: Hop's culture was the corps culture. Outside the abuse, that culture generally was "work yourself to absolute death if you have to in order to succeed." The work was literally all that mattered. Not people, not physical health, not mental health, not nutrition, not safety - work, even at the expense of all of these things. That was the lesson he wanted us all to get. With that culture, they won 6 out of 11 years with incredible performances. We all bought into that culture. We were flat out treated like dog sh** - and we lived for that experience. Looking back on it I see the absolute insanity. I would never let anybody treat me like that here in my adult life now. But I let them do it back then. Because they were the champions when I showed up for my first audition and I was not. I was a kid. I knew nothing. They're the adults. They must know. This is how you succeed. I must be wrong. I'll just take it. Removing Hop drastically altered the organization and the culture. Immediately. The members from 2018 - 2023 were genuinely supported and taken care of to a degree we never were. It was a valiant effort. It was imperfect. But it was far better. Abuse is everywhere in the activity. Hop made the corps an even easier place for abusers and perpetrators to thrive. I hold him directly accountable for that.

Honestly the ballad was meh for me all summer

See the trial through to the end, by paying whatever legal fees and fines have accumulated along the way. Obtain the rights to the brand. Purchase all new assets to replace what was sold.

Bravo to this thread & all of your comments! 🙌